Quintessence of Religious Doctrines - Malankarasyriac Voice

published in 1964. Since then we have witnessed editions of thisbook with alterations prompted by ulterior motives. The changesare deplorable since the author himself never tried to change any ofthe formulations in his original work, even though his attitude to Churchadministration and allegiance to the hierarchy had changed in duecourse of time.Malpan Geevarghese Vattasseril and Rabban PouloseKochuparampil were elected to the episcopate by the MalankaraChurch and they were sent to the Patriarch of Antioch, for theirconsecration. At that time there was a rift at the Patriarchate. ThePatriarch Abdul Messiah was deposed in 1903 and a new PatriarchH.H. Ignatius Abded Aloho II (Abdulla) was enthroned in 1906 bythe Holy Synod. The removal and installation were duly acceptedand publicized officially in the Malankara Church. In 1908 the bishopdesignates from Malankara were sent to the canonical PatriarchH.H. Ignatius Abded Aloho, who was then at Jerusalem, forconsecration. They were consecrated as Metropolitans and cameback to India. An unhappy conflict erupted in Malankara after thearrival of the Patriarch H.H. Ignatius Abded Aloho in India in 1910when Vattasseril Mor Dionysius took a stand of dissidence againstthe Patriarch, and his supporters propagated allegations that HisHoliness was trying to capture the wealth of the Malankara Church.The co-trustees and all other Metropolitans sought to execute abond of allegiance to the Patriarch of Antioch by the Metropolitansand the parishes in Malankara, so as to safeguard against anydissidence in the future. Unfortunately, Mor Dionysius took a standagainst the co-trustees and the brother Metropolitans and evenchallenged the Patriarch. His Holiness was forced to excommunicatethis dissident bishop in 1911. This dissidence and the resultingexcommunication was the starting point of the ongoing feud andfactionalism in the Malankara Church.The strife and struggles continued in the Church; but in 1931Mor Dionysius met His Holiness Ignatius Elias III during H.H.’s4Publisher’s Brief 7 8Quintessence of Religious Doctrinesvisit to India and H.H lifted the excommunication through theencyclical No. 161. Mor Dionysius entered into eternal rest in 1934.The holy Church lost a great soul who had high intellectual potentialand ability to interpret the doctrines and scriptures but unfortunatelysquandered much of his later years in strife. The unforgettable literarycontribution of this great soul is the book ‘Mathopadesa Sarangal’.Here we have taken on the task of reprinting it so that the cominggenerations have access to a translation of the unaltered version ofthe original contribution of the then Malankara Malpan of theundivided Church.The translation into English and the brief commentary added toeach theme are the work of Prof. O.M. Mathew Oruvattithara, theretired Professor of Baselius College, Kottayam. He is an eruditescholar and studious researcher. He got enrolled for the Masters inTheology after his retirement from academic life. He successfullycompleted the Masters at the ‘Mar Thoma Vidya Niketan,’ affiliatedwith the Gregorian University in Rome and is now teaching Orthodoxtheology, by writing books, articles and teaching classes. His laudablecontributions in the form of the translation and commentary of thisbook will always be remembered. We express our most sincerethanks and gratitude to Prof. O.M. Mathew. The English speakingmembers of the Syriac Orthodox Church in Malankara will remaindeeply indebted to him.We were planning to publish this book through ‘Mor Adai StudyCentre’ with the generous support of ‘SOCM Forum http://www.socmnet.org’. Mr. Thomas Daniel (Reji), the ChiefModerator of the Forum, announced this project on the forum andthe support from our well wishers was overwhelming. We wereencouraged to publish a few thousand copies in English and also inMalayalam so that the senior Sunday School students and all theteachers can get a copy each at a very nominal price. We would liketo acknowledge the generous support and patronage that wereceived from His Grace Mor Theethos Yeldo, Archbishop of theMalankara Diocese of US and Canada. Generous support also